The students from Yeshiva of Flatbush were asked to leave an AirTran flight before departure for refusing to stay in their seats and shut their cellphones off. Southwest Airlines, which owns AirTran, said the students were "non-compliant" and were kicked off the flight after they ignored repeated requests from the flight crew.

But officials from the Brooklyn-based high school argue that the flight crew was "nasty" and overreacted to students who were simply excited by the prospect of a vacation.

"We take this matter seriously and have started our own investigation," said Rabbi Seth Linfield, executive director of the school. "Preliminarily, it does not appear that the action taken by the flight crew was justified."

According to teacher and chaperone Marian Wielgus, some students had to be told several times to sit down or turn off their phones, but they eventually complied. "It blew out of proportion. It was a mountain out of a molehill," she said. "They certainly did not do what the stewardess was claiming they did. That's what was so bizarre."

One student, Jonathan Zehavi, thinks they were targeted because of their heritage. "They treated us like we were terrorists; I've never seen anything like it. I'm not someone to make these kinds of statements," he said. "I think if it was a group of non-religious kids, the air stewardess wouldn't have dared to kick them off."

Still, Brad Rinschler, who was a business passenger on the flight, thinks the incident had more to do with bad behavior than anything else. "The pilot warned [the students]. They did not comply. They thought it was a joke. You know, it wasn't a joke," he said.